Royal Physician's Visit

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Set in Denmark in the 1760s, The Royal Physician's Visit magnificently recasts the dramatic era of Danish history when Johann Friedrich Struensee, a German doctor from Altona, student of Enlightenment philosophers Diderot and Voltaire, and court physician to mad young King Christian, stepped through the aperture history had opened for him and became for two years the holder of absolute power in Denmark." Dr. Struensee, tall, handsome, and charismatic, introduced hundreds of reforms, many of which would become hallmarks of the French Revolution twenty years later, including freedom of the press and improvement of the treatment of the peasantry. He also took young Queen Caroline Mathilde - unsatisfied by her unstable, childlike husband - as his mistress. He was a brilliant intellectual and brash reformer, yet Struensee lacked the cunning and subtlety of a skilled politician and, most tragically, lacked the talent to choose the right enemies at court, a flaw which would lead to his torture and execution.

FROM THE CRITICS

Time

Enquist, a celebrated Swedish novelist, turns this actual historical incident into an enthralling fable of the temptations of power—and a surprisingly poignant love story

New York Times Book Review

Enquist...has shaped this remarkable story into a gripping, fast-paced narrative....Principal characters are realized with a vididness and subtlety that place the book in the front ranks of contemporary literature....Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this story that astonishes at every turn is that it took this long for someone to tell it. We are fortunate that it is Per Olov Enquiest who has done so.

Wall Street Journal

Denmark￯﾿ﾽs most influential contributions to world literature are the bleak, beautiful fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the trenchant existentialist essays of Soren Kierkefaard. These two apparently antithetical straings find themselves entwined in this brilliant novel set in 18th-century Denmark￯﾿ﾽ. "The Royal Physician￯﾿ﾽs Visit￯﾿ﾽ is a masterpiece.

Tennesean

Enquist￯﾿ﾽs portent-filled style and skillful repetitions create a spell that draws the reader through scenes of hush-hush sex, court hugger-mugger and paralyzing fear toward the final brutal catastrophe.

Lost Angeles Times